There’s a reason why the Southern Poverty Law Center designates many conservative “Christian” organizations as hate groups, and that was perfectly demonstrated this week after a charity database was forced to change a policy because of threats of violence.

Guidestar is “the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations,” and to give donors the most information possible, they began identifying which non-profit organizations in their database have been listed as hate groups using the Southern Poverty Law Center’s extensively researched hate map as their source.

In all, 46 organizations, including Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty Counsel, Family Research Council, and the American Family Association were tagged as hate groups by the charity database so that people can make a more informed decision about who they give their money to.

Each of the groups named above are known for vicious rhetoric against LGBTQ people and support discrimination against them. It’s very easy to see why the SPLC designated them as hate groups.

Predictably, conservative “Christians” immediately whined about Guidestar’s responsible decision, going so far as to send a letter to Guidestar trashing the Southern Poverty Law Center by accusing them of being a “progressive political organization.”

Just so we are clear here, the SPLC fights for civil rights and does not have a political agenda. When a group of bigots bellows hateful speech and urges discrimination and persecution of a certain group of people just because they don’t fit in their narrow worldview, that’s precisely why the SPLC slaps them with the hate group designation. Right-wing bigots should not be allowed to get away with hiding behind their bibles to excuse their hate. That’s why shining a light on the cockroaches is so important. These hate groups use the money they receive to promote their hate. By telling the truth about hate groups, Guidestar is hurting their bottom line, which hurts their ability to spread their hateful propaganda.

But conservative “Christians” responded to Guidestar by harassing and threatening their staffers, which forced the charity database to rescind their new policy out of fear for the safety of their employees and their families.

Guidestar said in a statement:

A significant amount of the feedback we’ve received in recent days has shifted from constructive criticism to harassment and threats directed at our staff and leadership.

With this development in mind—driven by both our commitment to objectivity and our concerns for our staff’s wellbeing—we have decided to remove the SPLC annotations from these 46 organizations for the time being. This change will be implemented during the week of June 26, 2017. In the meantime, we will make this information available to any user on request.”

In other words, conservatives terrorized an organization into doing what they wanted it to do. Threats of violence and harassment are what drove the SPLC to go after the KKK and neo-Nazis when it was first founded. Now conservative “Christians” are demonstrating that they deserve the hate group label by using those very same tactics to get their own way.

We must not allow hate to win. Contact Guidestar here and let them know that you support their decision to tell the truth about hate groups. Ask them to reinstate their policy and stand up to these bigots.